Sourdough Chocolate Cake

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Combine the fed starter, milk, and spelt flour in a mixing bowl. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 8 hours. If not ready to bake the cake, transfer this mixture to the refrigerator until ready to finish the cake, but allow it to come back to room temperature before proceeding.

Pour into prepared pan(s). Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out cleanly. Remove from oven and set on a rack to cool. Once cool, if cakes are in square or circle pans, tip them out onto a platter. Spread frosting (see recipe below) between layers and on top. If cake is in 1 rectangular pan, spread frosting on top.

Have you ever given a recipe a traditional foods makeover? Will you make this Sourdough Chocolate Cake?

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During the time that NT was published, Sucanat was being processed in a more refined way, which is why it is not included in the list of unrefined sweeteners. Since that time, they have gone back to processing it much the same as Rapadura. So you can use either knowing that they are unrefined sugar cane. Rapadura is more expensive, thus why people often choose Sucanat.

Then there’s evaporated cane juice (what I used in this recipe) which is somewhat refined. I bought it thinking it was “dehydrated cane juice” (Rapadura) but apparently there is a difference between “dehydrated” and “evaporated” What that difference is I do not know – but the former is unrefined and the latter is a little refined.

Of course, all sweeteners should be moderated!!! (But you both know that. 🙂 )

Hi, Jean – Whatever milk you normally drink would substitute fine. The sourdough is what neutralizes the phytic acid in the flour. I understand that not all people have access to raw milk – so feel free to substitute the milk you drink. 🙂 I use the Vita-Mix dry container or a food processor to powder the Sucanat. It works really well. The VM does a better job. Enjoy!

This looks amazing! Unfortunately, I killed my sourdough starter some months back and haven’t tried again. Plus the recipe I tried to make bread with… well let’s just say that loaf (or brick, rather), could’ve broken a window! I still have some learning & reading to do in the realm of sourdough but it’s so healthy for you that I hope to try again soon!

mmm…you’re inspiring me to get a sourdough starter going again… although, for the cake, I’d have to use carob instead of chocolate as I’m alergic to chocolate (have you ever heard of a thing so absurd? kidding…sort of) 🙂

Tried this recipe today…what a delicious cake! I have to admit, I thought the sourdough would make it too heavy, but my whole family LOVED it! It was perfect! I didn’t have coconut cream for the frosting, so I made homemade whipped cream instead. It was a perfect complement!

A friend had given me some Teecino a couple months ago when I was trying to quit coffee (I did, BTW). I put it up in the cupboard and forgot about it. When I saw this ingredient in the recipe, I thought, ‘I just might have that.’ LOL! It was almond amaretto…gave it wonderful flavor!

I just make this cake today (started last night) and it turned out LOVELY!

I made it for a friend’s birthday. She has digestive problems and usually cakes give her issues. But she ate two pieces of this one and said her stomach was fine! Yay! Success!

My only problems were:

1) I used wheat flour instead of spelt flour. I think wheat flour is slightly more dry than spelt flour and so my cake turned out a tiny (TINY) bit dry. I’ll try less flour next time.

2) I doubled the recipe and used two different cake pans: one metal cake pan and one glass cake pan. The cake in the glass pan was more moist and rose higher than the cake in the metal pan. Even so, I was happy to see the sourdough component behaving as expected! I’ll be sure to use only glass pans in the future. 😉

This looks really awesome! I will try this one definitly! This is the second time I see that I should not use dutch cocoa powder. Since I am dutch and live in the Netherlands, I am afraid I can’t get anything else here and I wonder why this is?
.-= Iris´s last blog post… 1e muffins van geweekt meel =-.

Iris – I think you can go ahead and use Dutch cocoa. It has been processed to make it less acidic, which can affect leavening. But since this sourdough cake has the baking soda to react with the sourdough starter, it leavens fine. In fact, I used Dutch cocoa the other day and the cake was fine. Perhaps a gourmet would have noticed the difference, but I did not.

Tara, I don’t know the brand because it comes in bulk. I could try to find out. But since putting up this post, I have used Dutch process cocoa in the cake. It doesn’t rise quite as well because it is not acidic and doesn’t react with the baking soda like the traditional does.

Wardee,
I’m outta milk.
What do you think if I substitute water and coconut cream (tropical traditions) to make a coconut milk? Maybe 3/4 c liquid and 3 eggs or keep 1 c liquid and 2 eggs? Should I skip the experient and get dairy? What’s your advice?
-Teresa

I am making this for my 8 yr old Bday tomorrow, soaking now! I need to use Stevia because we cannot have any other sweetener, any idea how I would replace the bulk in the recipe in order to do that? and what amount of Stevia?

I made King Arthur’s version of this cake today (hadn’t found your version yet) and it tastes really good, but was a bit dry and there were some little lumps of sourdough left that hadn’t mixed in very well. I mixed it in my Kitchenaid and it looked well mixed. Have you ever had that problem? Is it better to mix by hand? Aside from the lumps, it was a really good cake!

Rose, I am sure you are familiar with Droste cocoa brand. Droste is alkalized. By natural, they mean untreated natural cocoa, which is lighter colored and better for you, so very popular now with the healthy foods movement, but not as deeply flavored either. I am going to try the cake with Droste because it tastes so good, but will make sure to let the batter ferment the full 8 hours. Hopefully that will make more sour acid to replace the lack of cocoa acidity so the cake still rises properly. Had to go to a specialty store to get the Droste because it can be hard to find in the US.

I was wondering if you could make this without egg. My son is allergic and I’m not sure about how the different ingredients will react to not having the egg as a posed to a normal flour sugar cake. Thanks

When we tried this recipe, it turned out 1/2″ thick brownie. Had nice oven rise, but settled back once removed from oven. I’m blaming it on the pan size (11.5″ x 11.5″) vs recommended 9″ x 12″. What do you think?

I made this cake this week for my husband’s birthday. This NEEDS to be my go-to cake. . .everyone needs one, don’t you think. I spouted, ground and sifted the spelt myself anf soaked in my own sourdough starter.
The taste was amazing (although it could have “soured” even longer) but it was a dry. I baked for 32 minutes. Any thoughts? Also I used ghiardeli (sp) cocoa. Is that ok?

We don’t have a vanilla variation. We think you might try this: Omit cocoa powder. May have to decrease liquid and/or increase flour/sweetener a bit. Increase vanilla. You might play around with it and see how it turns out. 🙂

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